There is nothing more addictive than sliding into someone else's life for a spell. If you love memoirs, you know what I mean. The very best memoirs are an active read; they force you to take on other people's challenges, to pick positions and interrogate your motives. The rewards are a greater understanding of the humans you live alongside - and of yourself.
In All the Young Men (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, $35), Ruth Coker Burks describes her compassionate care for Aids patients in the early days of the epidemic, when little was understood about how it was spread and a diagnosis was a certain death sentence. It took tremendous courage for the young single mother to enter her first quarantine hospital room in the mid-80s and sit with a dying man, especially in her socially conservative home of Hot Springs, Arkansas, where trained nurses were too scared or morally offended to look after Aids patients.
Over time, Burks created an unofficial wrap-around service for men whose own families wouldn't care for them due to shame or fear or both - and word got out that she was an ally, maybe an angel. She found housing and jobs for the healthier patients. For those who couldn't work, she provided hot meals and friendship. When no one claimed their bodies, she buried them in her family cemetery.
Her book brings the American South of 35 years ago to life - the underground gay clubs, the joyous sexual experimentation, the idealised "family values" and the apple-pie-and-icecream veneer that allowed people to ignore what was happening around them. It also exposes pure-hearted goodness - and not just her own. There is the doctor who secretly sees "her guys", the business owners who leave unused, edible food next to the dumpster for her to retrieve, the pottery-maker who gives her urns for the dead; and all the kind, scared gay boys who help her raise her daughter, Alison.
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